Ike Abonyi
24 October 2007
Abuja — Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. General Andrew Owoye Azazi yesterday allayed the fears of Nigerians on the continued presence of United States military in the Gulf of Guinea.
Speaking at a forum in Abuja on Tuesday, the Defence chief said that Nigerians should not get unnecessarily worried over the matter as the troops are there just to give peace in the area. General Azazi said that US likes to have relative peace anywhere they have business interest.
"US wants relative peace to be able to undertake their business" he said pointing out that there is no other motive behind their troops presence to worry anybody.
On the Niger Delta situation, the Defence chief said that military have lost sizeable number of personnel in the troubled region but refused to give the exact figure of casualties. He said that Nigerians should not expect a military solution to Niger Delta problem but assured that the military will try to stabilize the place for the much-needed political solution.
On the intelligence capability of Nigeria military to cope with the Niger Delta situation, General Azazi said the military have it but noted that successful intelligence work depends largely on the people and their willingness to give information.
General Azazi also spoke on the role of the military in the last general election and said that they were only asked to ensure stable environment for the poll to take place.
The Chief said that a guideline was drawn out for those military personnel who participated in ensuring stability during the elections.He noted that most of the allegations of military involvement cannot be substantiated but assured that any obvious case will be dealt with in a military way.
"We will deal with the identified ones" but wondered how it can be substantiated. On whether killers of Nigerian peace keepers in Darfur, Sudan have been apprehended as promised, General Azazi said that the promise was made by Sudanese authorities but they are yet to get back to them on it.
He refused the suggestion that Nigeria should reconsider their peace keeping role in Africa because of casualties saying that the country is committed to global security but said there is need to ensure a policy that will protect the interest of the country.
The defence chief also assured that after eight years of democracy the nation's military has been fully depoliticised. "We are completely depoliticised we have a purely professional military now" he declared. He blamed the continued problem of retired military personnel in collecting their pensions on what he called improper documentations and hoped that the new pension policy will help address it.
The General also explained the cause of discrimination against military personnel withHIV saying that there is a general rule in the system that one must be of very healthy before he can embark on the rigours of the training.On the e-recruitment being applied by all the services of the military , General Azazi said it has been going on fine except the initial problem that usually come with such innovations.
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